Musical Monday: In Honor of Disneyland's 60th Anniversary

July 17th (10 days ago) was the 60th anniversary of the happiest place on earth. Unfortunately I wasn't there for the festivities but I was having fun elsewhere :):) Because I was traveling I couldn't do a post in honor of the event so I will do it now. Here goes.
In honor of Disneyland's 60th anniversary here are a few of my (difficultly narrowed down) favorite Disney songs and a few of my favorite pictures from our various Disneyland trips:):)

I See the Light from Tangled 

A Whole New World from Aladdin

Under the Sea from Little Mermaid

You'll be in My Heart from Tarzan

Married Life from Up

Circle of Life from Lion King

Mickey Mouse March

I was originally going to do five but then I remembered a couple more that I couldn't leave out ;) 

Same things kind of goes for the pictures ;);)

What is your favorite Disney song? Do you have any special Disney memories?

Wednesday's Words to Remember:Real Friends

Musical Monday: He's a Pirate by David Garrett + Some Pictures

 Our 4th of July was unique this year. We had fun fellowshiping with some friends for the afternoon.

 Our steaks caught on fire so they cooked in five minutes flat. I am glad our neighbors didn't call the firefighters due to the billows of smoke coming from our house :/

 Hannah made us a patriotic fruit salad and one of our friends brought pasta salad. YUM!!!

Let me introduce you to Will. He is the sweetest and funniest cat.

 This is Elianna's "mean guy" face ;)

 I am trying to grow an upside down tomato plant this year:) It is my one and only attempt at gardening this season. I have this weird thing with naming things that belong to me so I named my tomato plant Belinda. Now if I could just keep the deer from eating her :/

 Playtime with my sweet little sis!!!:)

Do you all have a garden? If so, what is your favorite thing to grow??

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!!! I hope y'all have a fun, patriotism filled day :):)

     This year our celebration is going to be rather low key; a bbq with another family and then a trip to "the Rock" to see a laser show.
     Last night was the MSO's patriotic concert. It was alot of fun. We played several patriotic medleys. Aaron Copland's Rodeo, two Star Wars medleys and a piece composed by a boy in our orchestra and a piece that Sean composed!!
     This Independence day let's remember what this nation was founded on. The day we forget what we are founded on is the day we loose our independence and this nation. Those who founded our nation as well as all the men and women throughout our history who have worked to preserve our freedom have paid much to high a price for us to let ourselves to duped into giving up our free nation.

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.  ~Elmer Davis


Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.  ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.  ~Author Unknown


They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania,   

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity"
John Adams 

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
James Madison  

Here are a couple pictures of 4th of July celebrations in one of the birthplaces of our nation and one of my favorite places in the world; Colonial Williamsburg.

 

 

     What are you doing to celebrate this 4th of July?

A Trip to Washington and Other Happenings

 Warning!!!!! This is a very long and picture filled post.

There is this beautiful, green place north of us called Washington; and we (my family and I) made a journey there two weeks ago. We had a lovely time with my grandparents as we hiked, swam and drove through gorgeous landscapes.

 This little girl loves Minnie!!!! She even has Minnie ponytails in her hair :)

 There was snow on Mt. Shasta!! What a refreshing sight to see!!:)

We spent our first night in Medford Oregon at a hotel with a water slide!!! ooooohhhhh!!!

 We arrived safely at our grandparents cozy home in the woods.

 They live near a large lake called Lake Cushman. It is there that we went swimming a couple of times. Us four olders had a wonderful time swimming to islands and trying to balance all four of us on a floating log :):)

 We took a two day drive around the Olympic Peninsula. We took lots of little hikes and got to explore several fairy forrests.

 

We also got to go to the beach!!! However Washington beaches are not like California beaches. In Washington the beaches are rather cold, cloudy and rocky.

We stopped by this beautiful old lodge that had a lovely view of a lake. They had an old piano there that Sean enjoyed playing.

 When we returned home from our short excursion we went on a boat outing with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and their friend.

 The lake was beautiful and it was a perfect day for a water outing. That is until the engine broke. We spent half an hour  sitting on the lake waiting and hoping someone would come and rescue us ;)

 Thankfully a man did come in his boat and towed us as close as he could get to the dock.

 And dad and Scott pulled us the rest of the way!!! :)

 In our down time us four olders played INTENSE games of Dutch Blitz. It was so much fun but I give fair warning to whomever wishes to play Dutch Blitz with us...... you have been warned.

Hannah, Grandma and I also played our traditional game of Scrabble. Well at least, we started. We were only half way done when we were interrupted. However, at the time of being interrupted I was winning :):)

Sadly we had to leave our grandparents wonderful home because our own home was calling us. On our way home we went outlet shopping at some outlets somewhere in Oregon. It was very fun and I even found my happy store!!!:):):)

 

We spent the night at the same hotel as we did on our way to Washington. This time we actually got to try the water slide!! :) 

For Father's Day we took Dad to Wingstop (one of his favorite places to eat) 

I am just now realizing that I never got a picture of all of us with him. Bummer.

However I got a couple of pictures of these cuties ;)

We arrived home to immediently welcome some old friends. It had been 15 years since we had seen them last and we were so excited to get reacquainted.

 We even enjoyed a large water balloon fight!!

 And we enjoyed their ADORABLE dog, Harvey :):)

After trips and fun times life must return to it's usual pace (though in our family I have yet to discover what usual is) which includes orchestra rehearsal. We are prepping for our exciting July 3rd concert so if any of you are interested in Star Wars, Cowboys and/or patriotic music please join us!! :):)

Mine and Hannah's first dance recital was last week. We had a ton of fun performing for the first time!!

 And last but not least of my exciting news is, I GOT A NEW LENSE FOR MY CAMERA!!! I am so excited about it!!!! Here are a couple pictures I have taken with it.

And that is all for now folks!!! Thank you for bearing with my very long posts.